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Is it possible to initiate a graceful shutdown through PCNS, triggered by an event from an Environmental Monitoring Unit AP9340?

Issue

How to initiate a graceful shutdown through PCNS, triggered by an event from an Environmental Monitoring Unit AP9340.

Product

AP9340 Environmental Monitoring Unit

Environment

Network appliance enabling monitoring of environmental conditions.

Cause

The AP9340 can monitor events and notify users in case an event occurs, but it can not communicate with PowerChute Network Shutdown in order to initiate a shutdown.

Solution

It is not possible to gracefully shutdown a system due to an event from an AP9340 directly.

However, if you are using a UPS that has a Network Management Card installed (AP9618/AP9619, AP9631 with AP9810 dry contacts accessory), you can wire the Output Relay of the AP9340 to one of the Input contacts of the AP9618 or AP9619 or AP9631 with AP9810. You can then map a fault in the AP9340 to the Output Relay. When the fault occurs, the Output Relay will open or close (dependent on your configuration) which will cause the Input on the Network Management Card to open or close. When the Input contact changes on the Network Management Card, this can alert all servers running Powerchute Network Shutdown. The user can configure Powerchute to shutdown based on an Input alarm state.

One point to note is that PowerChute will shutdown the server and can also shutdown the UPS. However, since the shutdown is caused by an environmental condition, not power, the server and UPS will stay turned off until the user powers the devices back on. Under power related shutdowns, a UPS can be configured to turn off, then turn on once utility power has been restored. This is not possible with environmental conditions.